The 2012 National Celtic Festival at Portarlington on the Beautiful Bellarine Peninsula looks like being one of the biggest and best ever with an amazing array of entertainment from both locally and some of Ireland, Scotland and the UK’s finest.
Held over the Queen’s Birthday Weekend, between the 8th and 11th of June this year the festival not only features great music and entertainment but also features a massive festival marketplace with over 80 stalls offering plenty of unique gifts, arts and crafts and lots of delicious treats to try (and usually even haggis)
South Australian based Scottish fiddler Catherine Fraser who is regarded world wide as a outstanding performer is this year’s ‘Face of the Festival’ Catherine has been helping promote and support the festival and is one of the major drawcards to the festival as are the Celtic folk rock six piece the Popes from the United Kingdom. Breabach one of Scotland’s most successful folk bands in recent years will be performing as the beautiful Celtic Divas and Lumiere who visit from Ireland.
Hailing from the Irish city of Galway, singer songwriter, Noelie McDonnell will be teaming up with Nicola Joyce who is best known as lead singer of Grada, and Noriana Kennedy in what will be one of the best shows of the festival.
Fiona Ross who now lives in Melbourne but originates from Glasgow in Scotland will be another very popular performance with her interpretation of traditional Scots songs.
Australian Performers include the Adelaide Scottish Fiddle Club, Blackbird, Claymore, Christine Morphett, Eric Purdie, Jimmy Moore and Claddagh and Knot O’The Gate to name just a few of the dozens of great names.
The festival will feature quite a few workshop including the Gaelic language, dance, poetry, guitar, fiddle and even bagpipes which are all conducted by some very talented artists.
The festival is held in and around Portalington taking advantage o the halls, pubs, and restaurants around the township. There are huge marquees with seating for the larger performances and even the tall ship The Enterprize gets in on the action with plenty of Celtic fun on board.
Both day tickets and weekend passes are available, but hurry as they may sell out in advance of the event.